Missal

This missal (a book containing the necessary texts for the celebration of mass) is illuminated with four large historiated initials and lavish decorated borders filled with cameos, gems, flowers, and hybrid creatures. The painting in the manuscript is both technically precise and conceptually playful. The figures inhabiting the initials have the minutely rendered details of manuscript illumination while still asserting a monumental presence. The border elements are as creative as the finest Italian manuscripts, executed with a wit that leaves the viewer wondering where the observation of nature leaves off and artifice begins. The manuscript's artist, Matteo da Milano, was known for his lively, colorful palette, robust modeling, and a penchant for exotic details of costume. He was among the most important and successful artists of the beginning of the 1500s in Rome. This manuscript was commissioned by a member of the powerful Orsini family, which can be determined by the appearance in the borders of the Orsini arms and the device of little bears ( orsini in Italian).